Predrag Gojković Cune

Predrag Gojković Cune was a Serbian singer of folk songs, sevdalinkas, old city songs, pop and Mexican songs, and one of the most popular and respected singers of Yugoslavia. He was born in Kragujevac on 6 November 1932 and grew up in Belgrade, where his family moved in 1936; at the gymnasium he went to school with the actors Bata Živojinović and Danilo Bata Stojković. His nickname came from his mother calling him to be kissed.

He first sang in public at seven, in a duet with his sister, and stood before a Radio Belgrade microphone in 1948. His first big success, with the ensemble of Milija Spasojević, was second place at a song festival in Milan with "Halisko". In February 1962 he recorded "Kafu mi, draga, ispeci", which by May had become the first gold record in Yugoslavia and the Balkans. From then on he sang fewer pop songs and more folk songs, romances and old city songs.

In 1966 he went on a tour of America and stayed three years. Through the 1960s and 1970s he often won first and second prizes at festivals, and in 1971, at the Hotel Jugoslavija, he won a singing duel of more than fifteen hours against Mile Bogdanović. In the 1980s he hosted the Folk parada with Predrag Živković Tozovac and sang in the trio Tri majstora with Tozovac and Miroslav Ilić. He also recorded with Silvana Armenulić and sang duets with Lepa Lukić.

His hit "Janičar" was written by Novica Negovanović. Over almost seventy years Cune recorded 52 singles and more than a thousand folk songs for the archive of Radio Belgrade, and he said he knew over 4,000 songs. His voice spanned three octaves. He acted in television series and films, among them Jagode u grlu, and he was awarded the Order of Merits for the People by Josip Broz Tito and the Golden Microphone of Radio Belgrade in 2015.

He announced the end of his singing career in November 2015. Predrag Gojković Cune died in Belgrade on 21 July 2017 and was buried in the Alley of Distinguished Citizens at the Belgrade New Cemetery, next to his childhood friend Bata Živojinović.